School Governance Milestones

1842: New York City--confined to present-day
Manhattan--elects its first public board of education. The board
oversees a decentralized system of ward-based schools. It eclipses
the Public School Society, a quasi-public agency that ran a network
of free schools, largely attended by the poor, during the first half
of the century. In her 1974 book The Great School Wars: New York
City, 1805-1973, Diane Ravitch writes: "Over the next half
century, until the next massive reorganization of the city school
system in 1896, the central board and the local ward boards engaged
in jealous battles over their respective powers.''

1896: A hard-fought campaign by school reformers to
centralize the schools culminates in the abolition of the ward-based
school boards. Authority for the school system's business operations
is vested in the central board, while most educational matters are
governed by a cadre of central-office professionals known as the
board of superintendents. Two years later, what are now the five
boroughs of New York merge to form a single city. The consolidation
ushers in a period of instability until the separate borough-based
boards are eliminated in 1901 in favor of a central board and
bureaucracy.

1969: Nearly seven decades of relative stability in school
governance ends when the state legislature splinters the system into
32 community school districts, each with its own elected board. The
boards operate the city's elementary, middle, and junior high
schools, while the high schools and many systemwide services remain
under the direct control of the newly created position of chancellor
and the central board of education. Although the new system is a
response to pressure for stronger community control, it also reflects
demands by the powerful teachers' union and other educators. The
arrangement yields countless power struggles between the community
boards and the chancellor.

1996: After years of wrangling in Albany over how to
improve the 1969 power-sharing scheme, the legislature accedes to
demands from Schools Chancellor Rudy F. Crew for greater authority
over the far-flung community districts. The chancellor helps his
cause by cultivating such influential allies as the mayor, the
business community, foundations, and the teachers' union. Agreement
comes after the mayor shelves his bid for direct control of the
schools and lawmakers put aside the divisive question of whether to
alter the central board and, if so, how.